HBO Changes Its Mind, Cancels ‘The Brink’ After Season 2 Renewal

After renewing the comedy for a second season in July, HBO has decided to cancel the dark political comedy, which starred Tim Robbins and Jack Black as the U.S. Secretary of State and a downtrodden Foreign Service officer, respectively.

“After evaluating our schedule and our programming needs, we unfortunately decided we cannot give The Brink the attention it deserves for a second season,” said HBO in a statement. “We are proud of the first season and wish everyone involved in this show the very best.”

Speculation is that enthusiasm for the show ultimately died with executive producer Jerry Weintraub, who passed away earlier this year. Weintraub had been vital in selling the script to the network. Of course, the other reason for the show’s presumed cancellation is HBO’s decision to order a bunch of new comedies in an attempt to further strengthen their comedy brand, with series that include Vice Principals with Danny McBride, the Duplass brothers comedy Animals, and Issa Rae’s Insecure. However, it does seem strange that HBO would choose to ditch a relatively sure-thing for a group of unknowns. While not a hit like it’s timeslot mate Ballers, The Brink still brought in a solid 1.6 million viewers in its post-Ballers time slot.

Credit: HBO

Ultimately, I feel awful for the cast and crew, and also for the fans of the show, who were looking forward to Season 2. It seems strangely cruel to renew a show just to retroactively cancel it. But I suppose HBO had its reasons.

What do you think of the cancellation of The Brink? Sound off in the comments!